Angela Merkel's road to power...

...led her more than once to Adlershof

Few traces remain of the Central Institute for Physical Chemistry in the suburb of Adlershof, part of the East German Academy of Sciences. The campus is now a business park, and the building where Merkel had her office has been demolished. The hunt for what is left of her scientific past leads past “Knut’s Sauna Club” to a long, squat building with a glass door. On the first floor is a low-ceilinged room with six windows and an old green blackboard on one wall. This is where, in 1986, Merkel defended her doctoral thesis – succesfully – to become Dr Angela Merkel.